The Politics of Throwing Your Spouse Under the Bus

It is important that campaigns do opposition research… on themselves and then deal with it or have a strategy to deal with it before announcing.  Otherwise you leave it up to your opponents and troll they did.  Democratic operatives trolled through Gail Ernst’s Facebook page to find items to feed the Des Moines Register.

And we wonder why people don’t want to run for office?

The remarks that Gail Ernst, husband of State Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) who is running for U.S. Senate, are more than a year old.  From March 2013: “What do you do if you see your ex running around in your front yard screaming and bloody? Stay calm. Reload. And try again.”

Jennifer Jacobs reported a couple more instances:

And on April 19, 2013, Gail Ernst shared a photo of Janet Napolitano, then the secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, with the comment: “And am I suppose (sic) to give up my guns? As if! Traitorous skank!”

His comment accompanied a photo circulating on the Internet that had this caption: “There is a nation-wide shortage of ammo because DHS has emptied the shelves, but when asked why her department is hording so much, her answer amounted to … I take the 5th.”…

Democrats today showed the Register another post, dated Jan. 24, 2013, in which Gail Ernst called Clinton a “Lying hag!” That remark accompanied a Facebook post that disparaged Clinton’s comments about the deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic installation in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.

I can’t and won’t defend Gail Ernst’s comments, but I can certainly empathize with what he is going through at the moment.

Gail Ernst’s statement to the Des Moines Register was appropriate… “I would like to apologize for the inappropriate comments I have made on Facebook, which I deeply regret. It is not the respect that women deserve or the example I want to set for my daughters.”

Was it necessary for Joni Ernst to throw her husband under the bus?  She told the Register, “I’m appalled by my husband’s remarks.  They are uncalled for and clearly inappropriate. I’ve addressed this issue with my husband and that’s between us.”

And the issue should have stayed between them.  Gail Ernst was responsible for the remarks, not Joni.

I thought that the charge that Bruce Braley’s “chick” ad was somehow sexist was ridiculous.  What are Democrats trying, in response (they took the screenshots last year), to prove here that unless Joni Ernst condemns her husband that she’s somehow misogynistic or supports misogyny?

Equally ridiculous.  If I were advising Joni Ernst I would have encouraged her to say, “Gail made a mistake, he has apologized as he should.  I love him mistakes and all, just as he does me.  If Democrats have to troll through my husband’s Facebook posts from a year ago they must be pretty desperate.  That’s all I am going to say on this matter.”

Either that or not comment at all and let her husband’s statement stand on its own.

Because does anybody seriously think she would approve of some of these comments?  Nobody should be expected to throw their spouse under the bus, and it’s not a winning strategy.  So Joni, stand by your man.

Now can we move on to some substance?